#timefor50: Time for Equality

RebelArchitette launch a new awareness campaign for a fair representation of gender in architecture

After the issuu of their first digital book "ARCHITETTE = WOMEN ARCHITECTS Here we are! in May 2018, the group of digital activists confirms its commitment to combat discrimination in the architecture profession. RebelArchitette are presenting a statistics report on the presence of female speakers at architecture events over the last two years and are launching the hashtag #timefor50, symbol of this new campaign in the name of equal representation in the design world.

“Women are a majority in the world yet they are still a minority in architecture. We want the world we live in to be better reflected in this profession”. Voices of women (https://vowarchitects.com/ ) Team RebelArchitette are acting on the undertaking made in the official manifesto launched at the flash mob organised to coincide with the opening of Venice Biennale 2018.

After analysing more than 400 events in the field of architecture held in Italy between 2017 and 2018, the group RebelArchitette, who are becoming increasingly active also internationally (*), collated and processed the data in a statistic report (coordinated by Anna Serafini and Cinzia Bigoni). The report is available in open source and it reveals a discouraging scenario when it comes to visibility of female speakers at architecture events.

The overall total of invited speakers was 3823, of which 2826 (74%) were male and 994 (26%) female.

No female professional took part in 153 events, that is 37% of all the conferences taken into consideration. In these cases the total number of male speakers invited to an individual event was 20. Only in 48 events (12% of the total) the number of professional women partecipating was equal or higher than that of males.

Only 10 events had all female panels, in those cases the maximum number of invited speakers was 2

Specifically, private organisations were more virtuous than public bodies, granting more visibility to female guests. Despite the larger number of events (272) held in Northern Italy, consideration for the participation of women was less evident than in Central & Southern Italy.

In Italy, the number of women architects, members of professional associations is increasing considerably; among the under 30s women outnumber men, in Lombardy women already account for 44,7% of the total membership(**). This is the reason why a lack of female role models in public events can no longer be tollerated.

Francesca Perani, who elaborated the document, asserts that the pool of professional women to draw from is vast and must be translated into real visibility for women in the professional field.

Considering that the times are ripe for equal representation of male and female professionals, and in particular keeping the younger generations in mind, the group RebelArchitette decided to launch the campaign #timefor50 (time for equality) on its social channelswith the aim to raise the level of awareness in both public and private bodies involved in the promotion of events related to architecture. The group is also engaged in active monitoring, and invite anyone to participate in it by sending alerts via the hashtag #timefor50.

The team's self-published book "Architette=Women Architects 1⁄2 Here We Are!”, freely available for online consultation, was offered as a tool for this purpose: exceptional figures in national and international architecture, 365 women architects that can be called on to participate to events and be female role models for the new -and not so new- generations. In a single year this publication was read by over 6800 international users, in particular in Italy, United States, India, United Kingdom and Australia.

We consider it our duty to encourage the next generation of architects and provide them with an inclusive and diversified landscape for reference. We count on the support of an ever increasing number of male and female colleagues.Anna Serafini – Cinzia Bigoni Team RebelArchitette

#timefor50 follows the European and international directives within the framework of gender policies, pursuing Goal n. 5 of the Sustainable Development of the 2030 Agenda of the United Nations on the issue of gender equality and empowerment of women and adolescents. The hastag is deliberately in English not to limit its field to Italian architecture and to favour its use internationally and in other professions, pointing out issues of inequality that may also arise in areas other than gender.